Donal Logue Gets Busy on The WB and NBC

[TJ]

http://tv.zap2it.com/news/tvnewsdaily.html?31171

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - His roots may be in Ireland, but there's no green grass growing under Donal Logue's feet.

The star of the Friday-night family comedy "Grounded for Life" -- which moved from FOX to The WB early this year -- can be seen in the new movie "Confidence," coming out April 25, alongside the likes of Edward Burns, Rachel Weisz, Andy Garcia and Dustin Hoffman.

Right before that, this Thursday, April 24, he continues his three-episode recurring role on NBC's "ER" as Chuck Brown, the "husband" of Dr. Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield). He made his first appearance on April 3.

"We get married in Las Vegas on kind of a lark," Logue says. "On a lost weekend, we meet each other. So now we're talking about the annulment, but I think we kind of like each other. I don't know what's going to happen."

The veteran of more than 45 movies and many TV appearances, Logue was honored to be asked to do the part on "ER."

"Someone told me that [series executive producer] John Wells really liked 'The Tao of Steve,' the movie I did, the little indie," he says. "It's weirdly kind of a sitcom of a movie. God bless cable. We get a lot of people at four in the morning."

"They're great over at 'ER.' They're the most insanely cool people. Clearly, they've been on this ship for nine years, sailing in uncharted waters of success. They're a crack operation."

Logue was surprised to find himself uneasy when he arrived on the "ER" set. "I was a little nervous showing up, which is very odd. I've done a bunch of movies, and I've worked with some pretty intimidating people, I'd have to say. For some reason, the set of 'ER' I find really intimidating, because they're good."

"The writing is really good; the speed at which it's performed is really intense. I want it to be good for those people."

As he speaks, Logue is on his way to do a reading for a possible upcoming movie with current "007" star Pierce Brosnan. "I like the guy," he says. "I don't know him, but I think he's cool. I'm totally lucky."

Logue plans to do a movie this hiatus, but as to whether the father of two prefers the big screen or the small, he says, "I've done a lot of both, and I'm really not judgmental. But on a sitcom, you know where your parking spot is; you know what your hours are; and you hang with your kids as they grow up."

In its Friday-night slot after "Reba," which has already been renewed, "Grounded for Life" has been performing well. "I guess the odds are pretty good [for renewal]," Logue says. "There's so much invested in the show at this point. We're at that weird place where we're almost at 60 episodes. It has that kind of momentum."

"Nothing's a certainty. I hope we do well for them."

Apparently the show did well enough, as The WB has given it a full 22-episode order for next season.

In "Grounded for Life," Logue plays Sean Finnerty, who married as a teen and is now the father of three, including a teen daughter (Lynsey Bartilson) and a son (Griffin Franzen) entering adolescence.

Asked if Sean has grown up at all over the show's three seasons, Logue says, "No, not really. I'm locked into my own state of emotional retardation."

As he waited for word on next season, Logue concentrated on keeping his own emotions from running high. "The network is going to do the thing that's satisfying the advertisers. If you, as an actor, don't get way too wrapped up in the idea of the righteous meritocracy of morality -- `Our show is wonderful!' -- if you're just cool with, you do what you can do on your show, and the rest of it is a weird corporate world, then you'll be OK. You'll come through it."

Having been a producer on two movies -- 2002's "Comic Book Villains" and 1997's "Men With Guns" -- Logue gets the business side of show business.

"People are so flippant about money out here that it blows your mind," he says. "People are like, 'I'm trying to get this money together for my flick. It's only $3 million.' And you're like, 'Dude, go to an ATM and try to take out $3 million.' That's a lot of money."

"If I was investing in someone, in movies, or in TV shows, where generally at this stage of the game, you're losing money in the show. So somebody's spending hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars a week in deficit financing. That would scare the hell out of me."